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Archive for the ‘nadia petrova’ Category

Since I missed yesterday due to having to do some actual work, let’s take a quick look at the fourth-round match-ups for the women at Indian Wells, now that the third round’s been completed.

(1) Caroline Wozniacki v. (22) Alisa Kleybanova

H2H: 2-0

The world no. 1 is cruising so far in this tournament, taking out former bugbear Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in straight sets on her fourth attempt so far. Kleybanova has had a slightly tougher road but has been equally unruffled, with straight sets victories over Agnes Szavay and, last night, thirteenth seed Flavia Pennetta. Looking at the draw, if Wozniacki is going to be beaten before the semi-finals, it’s going to be here. Best of luck with that, Kleybs.

(9) Agnieszka Radwanska v. (8) Victoria Azarenka

H2H: 2 – 4

Christ on a bike, I love this match-up. Two of my favourite players with plenty of history – two great and very different games – two of the more enigmatic and spiky personalities on tour. Which just makes it all the more frustrating that it’s on court 7 for reasons unknown and therefore won’t be streamed. But OK. Radwanska toiled in her last match against Maria Kirilenko, finally winning 75 in the third after the Russian recovered from a first-set bagel, while Azarenka posted a straight sets victory over Urszula Radwanska, her opponent’s little sis. Game. On.

Dinara Safina v. (16) Maria Sharapova

H2H: 3-3

Seriously, someone is doing this on purpose. Two contemporaries who have been playing each other since 2004, the only two Russians who have ever been ranked no. 1, and both struggling back from injuries that have decimated their careers (to different extents, I grant you, but still). Sharapova had a good win over Rezai yesterday, but who really thought Dinara would be here?! She beat the fourth seed Stosur last night in straight sets, a match that I didn’t watch but C Note did, and apparently while Stosur was fairly woeful, Dinara was brilliant. Remember when she was good? I mean, really good? That might be happening again. I’m so excited.

Not to worry though, she’s still Dinara.

(18) Nadia Petrova v. Peng Shuai

H2H: 2-1

I keep telling people how much Peng Shuai has improved (OK, it might be Shuai Peng), but will anyone listen? She backed up her defeat of Li Na by beating Lucie Hradecka, who took out Alexandra Dulgheru in the previous round. It did take her three sets, but then it took Nadia three sets to beat American wildcard Christina McHale. I think Peng’s going to win this one.

(5) Francesca Schiavone v. (10) Shahar Peer

H2H: 1-3

Another really great match-up. Schiavone has definitely had an easier time of it so far, beating Zuzana Ondraskova and Alize Cornet in straight sets, but from what I’ve seen her performances have been a bit erratic. Peer has had to go three sets with two tough opponents, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, but she’s beaten Schiavone every time they’ve played on hard courts. Fun times.

(23) Yanina Wickmayer v. (25) Dominika Cibulkova

H2H: 1-2

Sorry for the pictures, for some reason these ladies haven’t been photographed much. Anyway. Cibulkova of course has scored arguably the biggest upset of the tournament so far, defeating third seed Vera Zvonareva 46 76(4) 64, and has consequently been rewarded with angry mama and personal fave of mine Yanina Wickmayer, who put paid to the hopes of whipping girl Melanie Oudin and then took out fourteenth seed Kaia Kanepi. Happy days.

(6) Jelena Jankovic v. (19) Ana Ivanovic

H2H: 3-6

Whichever tennis god is doing this, I’m converting. No love lost between these Serbian former no. 1s who are both engaged in struggling out of prolonged and intermittent slumps. JJ has had a smooth ride so far against Coco Vanderweghe and Julia Goerges, and while I haven’t watched Ana’s matches, straight set wins over Date-Krumm and Zahlalova Strycova are a bit more impressive. So evidence would suggest she’s the form player so far – but then, as anyone who remembers the absolutely hilarious horror show that was their last match in Madrid will attest, reason and logic doesn’t always come into it with these girls.

(15) Marion Bartoli v. (2) Kim Clijsters

H2H: 0-3

Rather a tough ask for Marion, you might think, given that Kim has beaten her all three times they played. But then Kim looked pretty dreadful in her match against Sara Errani, taking three sets to subdue the Italian with a serve and forehand misfiring all over the place, while Bartoli beat a tough opponent in Andrea Petkovic in straight sets last round. So maybe it’s the Frenchwoman’s moment. Allez, I say.

And that is your WTA round of sixteen at Indian Wells. Put bluntly, if you’re not having fun with this, then you’re not paying attention.

Today was indeed a heartwarming day, wasn’t it? In addition to Soderling and Berdych on the men’s side, on the women’s side we had Elena Dementieva once again flying under the radar to outlast younger and more hyped players to reach her gazillionth Slam semi-final after defeating Nadia Petrova.

I have to admit that probably the worst WTA match I’ve ever watched was between these two ladies, and from the look of things, I’m not sorry I missed this one.

Commiserations to Nadia, who was obviously physically hampered (she pulled out of her doubles match last night) and pulled off two great wins in this tournament, beating Aravane Rezai and Venus Williams to make Roland Garros 2010 at least 50% more boring fashionwise. But equally huge congratulations to Elena, who didn’t come to Paris in the greatest form or physical shape and has looked to be on her way out at least once, only to regroup and find herself with an excellent chance of making the finals.

Elena will face Francesca Schiavone, who asked not what her country could do for her when she beat Caroline Wozniacki 62 63 to become the first Italian woman to make the semi-finals of a Slam. That is huge, and it was a huge performance from her; crafty, aggressive, throwing the full range of her talents at Wozniacki and making her look decidedly one-dimensional.

Q. Your moment of triumph of was so special. Your face was filled with joy. I know it’s difficult, but can you try and talk about emotion, the role of emotion and your play, your feeling at that moment?
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Heart attack.

Q. Hard to put in words, is what I meant to say.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: Maybe I can tell you in Italian; is more easy.

Q. In Italian is fine.
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE: No, that’s okay.
I think in that moment you remember many things from when you are when you were young. Is special because is your space, is your time, is your opportunity.
I felt alone, but with all the love around me is bo. (I don’t know.) It’s like if I ask you, How did you feel when you married? You say, It’s not easy to explain.
Is not enough?

Zheng Jie has been on quite the unheralded little run, taking out Marion Bartoli and now backing that up with a win over Alona Bondarenko to make the quarterfinals. She’ll face the winner of Safina-Kirilenko after a 76(5) 64 victory over the 31st seed.

This was more thna a decent scrap, but Bondarenko’s serve – never a thing of beauty – really let her down as she couldn’t hold on to either of the breaks she earned in the first set or the minibreak in the tiebreak. And Zheng never really let her in to the second set. Great match from her.

Nadia Petrova, meanwhile, proved that she’s not just a one-upset-per-tournament kind of girl by taking out Svetlana Kuznetsova, 63 36 61. I’m afraid I napped through this one, so all I can bring you are photos …

The shock of the day came courtesy of Nadia Petrova, who bundled Kim Clijsters unceremoniously out of the tournament, 60 61. Yes. Kim got one game.

What a bizarre, listless, error-strewn performance from Clijsters. Even she didn’t know how to explain it. Hats off to Nadia, though. I have never seen her play so aggressively and so cleanly. Kim may have been off her game, but Nadia didn’t give her even half a chance to get into it.

All is not lost, though, as Justine Henin scraped through in three sets over Alisa Kleybanova, and Yanina Wickmayer did the same against Sara Errani – despite being troubled with a back injury.

Uh-oh.

Justine and Wicky will face off in the next round. Now that could be fun. Both have a lot to prove and have been looking pretty determined so far in 2010. Expect fireworks.

They aren’t hanging around on the ladies’ side as the race to Doha/Bali/ending the season with some form of dignity goes on. In Luxembourg, all the seeds progressed including Suarez Navarro, who seems to be having a late surge, and a certain Licky, knocking out a potentially tricky opponent in the form of Iveta Benesova 61 64. That’s my girl. Sadly Laura Robson fell in the final round of qualifying. Again.

So Serena’s been the official no. 1-in-waiting for like a day, and she’s taking to it like a duck to water. Which is to say that she lost.

I must confess, I was watching Zvonareva and Pennetta and only even keeping a vague eye on the score for most of this one, and only saw from I think 4-4 in the third set on. What I did see impressed me greatly; the overall quality of the tennis, especially the serving (couldn’t have been a bigger contrast from Vera-Flavia), and of course Petrova’s performance. I’ve never been able to be a big fan of her game, although she seems like such a nice woman, but the tennis I saw was just stunning. She was also mentally rock solid, and I can’t believe I just typed those words. Even after going from 5-0 to 5-4 in the tiebreak, she continued to go for her shots and made them. Serena said after the match that she “ran into a girl today that has never played so good in her whole life”, and that seems about right to me. Well done Nadia Petrova.

It’s Peng Shuai next for Petrova. Interesting to see whether either or both will sustain the red-hot form of their last matches. Although if Petrova keeps playing the same way she did today, she could win this whole shebang. What depth!

As for Serena, this brings up the interesting situation where on Monday she and Dinara Safina will be just 5 points apart in the rankings. I don’t believe either is scheduled to play any tournaments between now and Doha, although theoretically, there’s no reason why Dinara couldn’t nab herself a wildcard into, say, the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. So potentially, it could all come down to who does better in Doha, right? Be interesting if the whole Year End Championships actually settled the year end no. 1 spot for once.

Q: With no more tournaments to go before Doha and with only five points leading in the ranking, what do you think about the competition between you and Safina for No. 1?

A: My goal is just to do well, and I tried to do well tonight but that didn’t work out so well. I can be No. 1 for a week on this tour, but it doesn’t matter how many Grand Slams you win. It’s more about how many Grand Slams you don’t win. My goal is just to do well in Doha.